DESKTOP BATTLE! Winners - Ghosts Edition
July 30, 2008 | Categories: DESKTOP BATTLE!


The last Wednesday of the month has finally arrived which means I can reveal the winners of the first DESKTOP BATTLE! Almost everything I got was amazing and it was really hard to chose a winner but here they are in order

Our first place winner is Brad Haubrich. Brad resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, grew up drawing and skateboarding, and really hasn’t changed much over the years. I really love this image because as Brad describes it, ” It’s a ghost riding on a bike with everything he owns.” Ghost kitties and ghost umbrellas are pretty awesome, plus it makes for a great desktop with lots of free space for icons. Congrats Brad on being the CHAMPION!


Second place goes to Veronica Hebard, who’s way artsy fartsy and went to school at SVA in NYC and MassArt in Boston. Right now she’s illustrating three comics for independent publishers and working on projects with Image and DC Comics. When I first opened this image the first thing that struck me were the colors. I love the colors A LOT; the bright pinks, blues and greens compliment each other and give the scene a feeling of movement. Also, the anime influence, sort of reminds me of James Jean but doensn’t feel like a ripoff.



Gary Goa, the third place winner, is a web developer who dabbles in illustration and photography. Gary got the idea for this image from two places: his fascination with old cameras and the idea that they were once thought to steal your soul. I love ghosts and cameras. Cameras in some cultures are known to steal your soul so this whole idea of ghosts paired with cameras seems like a natural fit.

I just want to send a big thanks out to everyone who submitted! There were a lot to choose from and it wasn’t easy, but I totally appreciate everyone who gave it a shot. Be sure to check back on Monday, not next Wednesday, when I announce next month’s theme and fill you all in on what awesome prizes you can win!

Bobby

Verity Keniger
July 29, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration

I swear, there’s something in the water in England, there are so many damn talented people on such a small island (with Australia coming up close behind!). Anyhow, the work of Verity Keniger reminds me of this, seeing as how she has a hand full of projects, most of them being really stunning. Her style is kind of all over the place, but I guess the common thread could be bright colors, some halftones here and there, and fun hand drawn items.

The pieces above are from a project she did for her degree, taking inspiration from Haley’s Comet and it’s journey around the sun. Though it looks like a single piece, but it’s actually made up of six different pieces that combine to make one awesome, record cover looking thing. I think the color of the pieces are perfect, and I’m totally obsessed with all the textures. My favorites are the sunburst on the outer cover, and the geometric shapes that kind of look like rocks, like I kind of want tattoos that look like those. Check out the rest of her work, lots of fun stuff!

Bobby

Poked Studio
July 29, 2008 | Categories: Art / Design / Illustration

I came across the work of Poked Studio the other day through FFFOUND! and I immediately started smiling. I couldn’t find much info about the studio, if it’s a person or a group of people, only that they’re based out of Wales in the UK. But their work speaks volumes, which looks like a cross somewhere between a crazy anime and Super Mario Bros. Lots of their work looks like a level to an insane video game, while a lot of their other work features a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms. All of it extremely brightly colored and could make your eyes bleed (in the good way). Take a peek, just be sure to wear glasses.

Bobby

Objectified, A New Film by Gary Hustwit
July 29, 2008 | Categories: Design / Films

I’d like to think I know a lot about design, but when I watched Helvetica last year I definitely learned a lot about the font that I really had no idea about. It was also cool to see the opinion of proffesional designers and their thoughts and opinions on the font. So now it’s pretty exciting that Gary HUstwit, the director of Helvetica, has announced his newest project called Objectified.

The movie centers around industrial design, and the people who’ve made a huge difference in the field. It also talks about the designers and their motivations as well as our relationships with the objects the create and what we can learn about ourselves by the things we surround ourselves with. The movie so far has the creme of the crop when it comes to I.D. people, the list so far includes:

Paola Antonelli, Chris Bangle, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Andrew Blauvelt, Anthony Dunne, Naoto Fukasawa, IDEO, Jonathan Ive, Hella Jongerius, Marc Newson, Fiona Raby, Dieter Rams, Karim Rashid, Alice Rawsthorn, Rob Walker with more to come.

I’m totally stoked about this film, seeing as how these are some of my favorite designers out there. The film should be release by sometime in early in 2009, so be sure to check in with the site to see when it’s playing in your area!

Bobby

Feed Cycling Project’s More Bike Less Car Campaign
July 28, 2008 | Categories: Design / Photography / Transportation

As I get more and more into bikes I start to feel guilty that I’m not posting about art or design instead, the bread and butter of +KN. So thankfully I came across something that covers both of those needs! The images above are from an amazing guerilla poster campaign by the folks over at nabiis, which I think is a big bike crew over in Taipei, Taiwan. The project, called Feed Cycling Project, consists of these gorgeously minimal black and white posters featuring some amazingly beautiful photos of bike parts. They then wheat pasted these all over the place, I’m guessing Taipei, to hopefully get people to stop and think about making a change. I personally would just love to own all of these posters, I’ve been drooling over these for days now.

I’d also like to mention that I found this through Something Rotten, the love child of Aaron Bateman, who does a really good great job, so pay him a visit! I’ve also put some more images of the posters under the cut, so check under there as well!

Keep reading Feed Cycling Project’s More Bike Less Car Campaign…

English House by Fleet Foxes
July 26, 2008 | Categories: Music / Video

I was checking out some of the clips from the recent Pitchfork Music Festival when I ran across this Fleet Foxes performance and I thought I’d share it. The song their performing is called English House, which is of off their Sun Giant EP which was released earlier this year before their full length dropped. I’d actually never heard the song before, and I didn’t even realize they had an EP, so it was kind of double exciting for me personally. The song itself is pretty good, and it’s always cool to see these guys perform, as they’re simply amazing. If you’d like to see some more of the performances from the festival, click here.

Bobby

Why America Is Fucked… Graphically, At Least
July 25, 2008 | Categories: Design / Video

People who are excited about design always gets me excited, but when they start releasing passionate, foul-mouthed, rants about the current state of half-ass design out there, well now you really have something! Aaron Draplin of Draplin Design Co. along with the folks over at Coudal are creating a three part documentary called Draplin Project, which obviously stars Aaron and I guess it’s going to be his thoughts on the world.

But what they’ve decided to do is give everyone a sneak peak of the film, with Mr. Draplin going on an amazing tirade of how design in America can seriously blow, and how we need to take back design and make it something amazing again. The clip is titled, Why America Is Fucked, and is really amazing, like I couldn’t agree with him more. It’s also filled with a lot of “fucks”, so if you’re sensitive you probably shouldn’t watch the video. As a sidenote, Aaron wrote a note to his parents with the video post, which I’d like to share with you all as well:

DEAR MOM AND DAD: I know you raised me well, and taught me how to speak and behave like an appropriate adult and all that, but, Jess asked the question and I got all fired up and then started swearing like a sailor. These things happen. Don’t excommunicate me.


Click here to watch the video directly, but definitely visit his Aaron’s site as well if you’ve never been. I can’t WAIT to see what else he has to say!

Found through Chris Glass

Bobby

Little People
July 25, 2008 | Categories: Art / Photography

This is kind of old, and I’m sure a lot of people already know about this, but my roommate’s awesome girly forwarded the link on to me a few days ago so I thought I’d give it a re-mention. Little People is a project that’s technically considered street art, it’s just that you might not see it at first. Why? Because they’re a bunch of miniature people set up in places which are suddenly given meaning. All of these people are the work and brainchild of a fellow named Slinkachu who takes photos of each of his set-ups, showing how even on a micro-scale you can make something beautiful. I loved the image above because it looks so serene and perfect, but you pull back and see the scale and it’s kind of mind boggling.

Check out more of his works by clicking the link above, and if you’d like to know more about the artist, click here to read a Fused Magazine interview that gives some more insight on the project and his inspirations.

Bobby

Perfect Pairs: Earlimart and She & Him
July 25, 2008 | Categories: Music


Face Down in the Right Town by Earlimart

Somehow I totally missed the fact that Earlimart had released a brand new album on July 1st entitled Hymn and Her. I guess why this surprised me so much was that they just released an album last August, especially in age where bands can take up to 10 stupid years to release an album, this is shocking and amazing. This is their sixth album so far, and there’s also been a drastic change in line-up, as the band is now compromised of only Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray. All of that being said, this new album is just as amazing as their last.

There aren’t any drastic like the transition from Treble and Tremble to Mentor Toremnetor, and it almost feels like a more thoughtful, less melancholy extension of Mentor. The songs are somewhat more simple, but overall they sound like people who are happier with their new situation. It’s basically pure pop goodness. Check out the song above, Face Down in the Right Town, and be sure to get to the ending where the horns start in, it’s pretty amazing.


I Thought I Saw Your Face by She & Him

The other half of this perfect pairs post are the folks from She & Him, comprised of the amazing M. Ward and the surprisingly talented Zooey Deschanel. Ever since I saw The Go-Getter I’ve had a big crush on the both of them, as the music was all done by M. Ward and Ms. Deschanel stared in it. I knew they were making music together as well, but I hadn’t had a chance to check out what they created until a few days ago.

The album, titled Volume One, is another burst of pop goodness, Zooey Deschanel’s voice ranging anywhere from Joanna Newsome, a little bit of Jenny Lewis, Linda Ronstadt, and a number of soul singers from the 60’s. M. Ward’s production is also crisp and precise, helping to not only make her vocals stand out even more, but rounding things out nicely. My only beef with the album was that I wanted M. Ward to sing a little bit more, not just do back-up vocals on a couple of tracks. If you like the song above I would highly suggest giving the album a try.

Bobby

Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes
July 23, 2008 | Categories: Films / Video

I just finished watching this really great documentary called Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, a rather self-explanatory title but extremely interesting to watch. Stanley Kubrick is somewhat of a cult figure (just read through Coudal on any given day) so people trying to figure out the deepest parts of Kubrick is nothing new. But in this documentary Jon Ronson is invited to the Kubrick estate to go through his immense collections of boxes, which number into the thousands. The contents of the boxes are extremely varied and all over the place, from photos to fan letters, and show what a detailed and intelligent man he really was.

One of the things I found most interesting was his obsession with perfection, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. For many of his films he’d have his nephew Manuel Harlan take tens of thousands of photos to see what was out there. He took photos of doorways, morgues, estate gates, costume shops, anything that might be useful. He did those for most of his movies as well, like trying to find the perfect hat for the droogies to wear in A Clockwork Orange.

If you have any interest in Kubrick I would definitely suggest watching this, it’s quite insightful. Also, I don’t know how long the video will stay up, so watch it ASAP.

Found through The Constant Siege

Bobby